Friday, January 19, 2024

The First Habit: Tracking Your Way to Routine

Achieving balance and fulfillment in life requires intentionally developing good habits across five key areas. This is the "5x Rule" - by developing and balancing the spiritual, social, physical, financial, and mental aspects of your life, you achieve much more in your life, with greater satisfaction and inner tranquility.

But simply identifying these five crucial domains requires that you have a plan to achieve that crucial balance. So the first habit to cultivate is the meta-habit of habit formation itself. With a solid system to reliably establish and solidify positive routines, you have the fundamental tools to live your best life. 

Therefore, the first habit to develop is to start tracking the daily activities you want to turn into habits. This is easily accomplished by recording your daily activities with a checklist or to-do tool. At the top of the checklist is to record whether or not you used the checklist. Then record how often you used your checklist. How many days in a row have you been able to diligently use your checklist? 

I use an app on my iPhone called ToDoist, which allows me to set up recurring daily activities. Todoist allows me to set up recurring actions that I want to become habitual. I can set up tasks that should be done every day, like stretching, and other tasks that should be done every workday, such as checking my schedule and email. I recommend you use a system like ToDoist or a similar tool. These apps help gamify habit development, making the process more enjoyable and engaging (1). Your first and primary goal is to simply start using the system. 

Building a flourishing, balanced life is not easy, but it can be achieved one habit at a time. Start by establishing the meta-habits to track habits. You could use a written checklist, an online app, or an Excel spreadsheet. The primary first habit is to regularly use a habit-tracking system. By beginning with simple daily habit tracking, you lay the groundwork for successfully building routines across all of the 5x domains.

1. Gowthamani R, Sasi Kala Rani K, Indira Priyadharshini M, Rohini M, Ebenezer G, Thomas E. Web Based Application for Healthy Habit Development Through Gamification with ML. 2022 4th International Conference on Smart Systems and Inventive Technology (ICSSIT). IEEE; 2022. p. 1338–45. PDF 

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